The 2014 South Coast League Championships saw USA Swimming Junior National Teamer, and Minnesota commit, Brooke Lorentzen swim the last league meet of her career.
She walked away with her third-straight league titles in both the 200 and 500 freestyles, which are as close as she gets to her specialty of open water in the high school lineup, in dominant fashion.
First came a 1:50.88 in that 200 free, which is right around the same time as she was when a sophomore and junior as well. Throughout those three years, Lorentzen has been amazingly consistent in her 150-yard splits. In 2012, she was at 1:22.67, in 2013 she was at 1:22.71, and in 2014 she was at 1:22.68.
This year, though, her last 50 wasn’t quite as good as we’ve seen in year’s pasts, splitting only 28.20. While the difference might not be enough to read into all that significantly, also consider that this year, the USA Swimming Open Water National Championships, which is Lorentzen’s big meet, is a few weeks later than it was last year.
Lorentzen came back to win the 500 free later in the meet in 4:52.92, which was also off of her typical time at this meet, and might be a better indicator of a shift in her training schedule for the mid-June open water nationals this year.
Despite Lorentzen’s efforts, her Capo Valley team came up short against Tesoro in the team title. Tesoro was led by Dominique Gray, with a 2:06.14 to win the 200 IM; and Mandy Barnes, who won the 100 fly in 56.77. Tesoro went 1-2 in both of those events.
On the men’s side, Capo Valley junior Nick Norman took the same double as his high school and Mission Viejo club teammate Lorentzen. First, he won the 200 free in 1:41.13, beating out Tesoro senior and Cal Poly commit Jeff Wynkoop (1:41.50). Wynkoop was out with a great first 50 and split his race very consistently, but Norman was too strong on his last 50 for Wynkoop to hang on.
Norman would come back later and win the 500 free in 4:29.69, a ten-second margin of victory.
Wynkoop would later win the 100 back in 50.18.
But again, Tesoro was too deep, and took the team title on the boys’ side as well. They could two individual victories from both Kyle Johnston and Brandon Boval. Johnston was 1:56.24 in the 200 IM and 58.57 in the 100 breaststroke, while Boval went 21.20 in the 50 free and 53.34 in the 100 fly.